


Diplomatic Issue

by SilverBardIcarus



Series: Klance AU month [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuban Lance (Voltron), Galtean AU, M/M, Spy - Freeform, diplomat, half-Galra Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 17:26:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17687762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverBardIcarus/pseuds/SilverBardIcarus
Summary: Earth has been invaded by space conquerors and was saved by an altean ship commandaded by queen Allura. She convokes a diplomatic meeting, on which Lance loses his memory after getting shot in an attempt to save her life. He is a valluable witness that is in danger of getting attacked again. He goes after danger instead of waiting for it.





	Diplomatic Issue

Lance opened his eyes for what seemed to be the first time in months; it felt like he had sand on them. He tried to move on the bed and a pair of hands held him down, firmly though not uncomfortably.

“You have to stay down, we don’t know if the injures healed completely yet.” the voice was distant but clear; he recognized it as being Shiro’s, the head of Earth diplomatic team.

He sighed, trying to remember where he was.

  
  
  


People always wondered if there was life in space; it was the kind of mystery that moved the human kind for centuries. They went to distant places on their galaxy, never finding the answer to that questioning. 

Not until the answers found them first, and not in a friendly way. Thousands of lives were lost before a different ship, a silver and blue one representing a pacific empire, decided to help them, chasing away the previous one. Then, they contacted all countries government, claiming they were there in a peace mission. Apparently, the Invaders were in a mission to start an intergalactic war on which they'd end up winning by using the surprise element to destroy whole civilizations. Their reasons were yet unknown to those who called themselves alteans. They also communicated they're planning a diplomatic meeting and needed them to join, bringing the best diplomats the Earth had to offer.

That was how their team formed. They were selected by hand and came from several countries around the world. They were friends for a while — the job field was not that big — and this made it easier to deal with one another. Shiro, Japanese, was the leader, alongside Adam, Brazilian; they decided on that because they were older and more experienced and also stopped a continental war without needing to use weapons.

  
  
  
  


Lance sighed, looking around. Shiro was worried sick about his teammate and friend.

“Do you remember where you are and what happened two nights ago?”

“Where… Castle of Lions, the altean ship.” he hesitated “What exactly happened?”

“ _ Merda _ .” said Adam in a low intonation; Lance haven’t noticed his presence there. Shiro started pacing in the room while Adam took his place beside the hospital bed, holding his hand.

“I'll see where queen Allura is.” Shiro stormed out of the room.

“Lance, listen…” his hazel eyes focused on his blue ones; whatever he was going to say next wasn't going to be nice. “There was an… ambush. As soon as we arrived, there was an attack. And you got shot.” the last words were spelled in a fast succession, sounding like the same word.

“What?!” Lance blinked a few times, not believing his ears. “I don't remember anything about this!”

“What's your last memory?” he furrowed his brows, worried

He saw flashes of the last time he was awake, but they were mostly confusing images that didn't make sense. Someone whispered on his ears and a shiver run down his spine; it was a voice coming out of his own mind and it made his head hurt.

“We arrived and we're greeting the guests, the next ones would be the galra diplomats; they were across the room and suddenly my back hurt…”

“And?” Adam leaned forward, expectantly.

“... Nothing. That's what I remember.”

“Across the room, huh? Impossible angle...” he mumbled to himself, lost in thoughts. 

Allura arrived at that moment. She was as stunning as the first time he saw her in the video transmission, back on Earth. He was mesmerised.

“Lance!” she had a cute british accent; not only she was a diplomat, she also a well known for her xenolinguistics skills. “Are you feeling well?” she had dark circles under her eyes and her dark skin was pale. She seemed unwell.

“I'm fine” he tried to move and ended. His back hurt. “Mostly.” 

“It worked!” she was relieved and turned to face Shiro “He's not dead!

“Excuse me?!” He raised on his elbows “What do you mean by “dead”?”

The three people in the room shared a look.

“Fine…” Adam broke the awkward silence “I'll tell him.”

Shiro and Allura had sheepish smiles on their faces. Adam started talking to Lance in that fatalist way he did earlier.

“So… After you got shot, you… Almost died. There was no time to take you to the cryo-pod and queen Allura had to make a fast decision… I'm sorry.”

“For what?!” Lance was alarmed.

“What Adam is trying to say is that I used my powers — medical powers that I learned from my father when I was old enough to go to this place called Oriande — to heal your wounds. And it had… Collateral damage?” she finished, uncertain of how she should break the news to him.

Lance was at a loss of words. He sat there, motionless.

“It isn’t as bad as you think, I swear.” Shiro hurried to calm him down; he raised his hands and had the palms open. He slightly shrugged shoulders. The cuban boy didn’t react.

“Takashi, you’re making things worse.” hissed Adam to his boyfriend, then turned to his younger friend. “Lance, nothing will really change for you, I swear. Just your… Appearance.”

He got more confused.

“All of this because of a scar?!” he huffed, annoyed, and folded his arms.

“Hm…” Adam cleared his throat.

“What?”  he got scared again.

“Enough of that!” Allura blurted out, almost shoving a hand mirror on his chest. “Look into this, for Pete’s sake.”

He did it and froze; in there, an altean version of himself stared back at him. This version was almost like normal him, except for the pointy ears and a big silver moon tattoo that started above his eyebrows and ended up on his left cheek. He shivered.

“No no no no no… You’re kidding me, using magic to trick me.” he searched for a confirmation on their eyes but they didn’t smile or laughed. “It’s not funny, guys.”

“I’m sorry, Lance.” the white haired woman shook her head. “This is not a joke. I think it’ll be back soon… There’s the possibility you’ll be like that for now on.”

“I can’t accept this! I’m cuban, you know what that means? It means I’m a 100% cuban and proud of nationality and wouldn’t change it to be an elf, no matter how nice I think they are.”

“Lance, you’re still cuban. I didn’t change your dna! I accidentally transferred some of my magical powers to you in order to heal your body faster, since our healing is faster than human’s. Think at this as if we were… Spiritual cousins!” she raised her index at the end; she had made out this excuse right in that moment and it was visible. The blue eyed boy thought for a second.

“Are you telling me you transmitted magical STD to me?” he realized how it sounded after he said it; it was too late. He blushed.

Maybe due to the tense situation or Lance’s comically raised eyebrows, the older men started laughing, to the point Shiro had tears on his eyes and Adam was holding his stomach. It was rare to see him laughing like that; it was so loud and contagious that Lance joined them. Allura was the one pissed out; she felt offended.

“I don’t have STD!” that made them laugh even more. Of all answers she could give them…

“Sorry… I’m… really…” he couldn’t finish the sentence, another wave of laughter shaking his shoulder. She ended up chuckling. She was relieved the boy who protected her was okay and overcame the initial shock.

  
  
  
  


Three days later he was released; that night Lance was watching his favorite series on the equipment he brought from Earth. In the middle of it, he got hungry and decided to find out where was the kitchen of the place. He didn’t reach that part of the castle because he missed the tour due to his almost death. He sneaked out of the room, looking to both sides of the corridor before passing through the door.

“ _ Good, no guards _ .”

He was lowkey forbidden of leaving the room until they found out who tried to kill Allura; Lance was an important witness in the case, in spite of not remembering anything from the previous nights, and his life could be put in danger again. Lance affirmed he didn’t need the rest of the team assuring he was alright — what five diplomats could do against the threat? — and wanted to have some time to himself. 

What could he do if they didn’t leave food for him? He was a growing boy!

Lance didn’t take two steps outside before he had his back pressed on the wall and a knife against his throat. 

“Tell me your true intentions!” someone growled to him.

  
  
  


“Our next mission is to go on cover as diplomats of the galra empire.” announced his mother, Krolia, packing her bag. His father leaned on the bedroom door, crossed arms and a frown on his face. Although he didn’t like to see his wife and son in danger, he needed to respect their life choices. 

“I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m not a diplomat material.” he pointed to himself. He was terrible at dealing with people, mostly because of his blood heritage. It made people dislike him without knowing him, which made it hard to have friends.

He was half-galra, half-human. His mom was on a mission and got attacked near Earth quadrant; that made her forcefully land on the desert of Arizona. There, she met his father, a firefighter who rescued her and treated her injuries. In the months she spent there, fixing her broken ship, they fall in love. Keith was the result of that love; since he had his mother’s ears and skin color, she decided to take him with her to space. His dad agreed it would be the best to the kid and decided he’d go with them, despite the odds of being the single human in a foreign planet. He’d take the risk for them.

In the present times, they are spies for the galra empire, under ex-prince Lotor leadership. They helped him become the emperor and dethrone his father and previous ruler, Zarkon, unfortunately killing him indirectly in the process. Texas, his dad, was part of the intel, with the promise of the prince’s protection to the human man, while both Krolia and Keith worked on field.

Their current mission was to discover the responsibles for the planet invasion across the whole galaxy, bringing grief and war to them; they wanted an end to their tyranny.

“Krolia, Keith, be careful on that mission, okay? There’s so much at stake and it’ll be the most dangerous mission you’ll face.”

“We’re going to win.” spoke her; she threw her bag on one shoulder and went to him, hugging her partner’s waist with one hand. She was a head taller than him and leaned her cheek on top of his head. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Eww, I’m still here!” complained Keith, despite having a silly smile on his face to see their affectionate behavior towards their beloved one.

The mission was going well so far. As soon as they arrived in Lotor’s entourage, following the man himself, they had to talk to guests and were mingling with people from different planets that was coming out of the main gate, with the purpose of spotting potential threats. Beside Keith and Krolia, there were at least five members of the Blade of Marmora, the secret governmental organization, and Lotor’s advisor, Narti. Lotor waved to Allura, who was in the opposite side of the room; she smiled to him. They were childhood friends and were very happy to be reunited again after the dark years of war between Altea and Daibazaal, caused by his father, Zarkon. The reason for the war was still unknown, at least to most of the population, Allura included.

It was at the time Earth diplomatic team entered the room that the hell broke loose. Near the crew, shots were fired. Everybody threw themselves on the floor, hiding from the shots. 

“Allura!” Lotor screamed when the altean queen who were closer to the earthlings was pushed on the floor by a tall, dark skinned man who put himself between her and the danger.

“It was an ambush!” someone screamed and mayhem started. People got desperate and started screaming and run out of the room. 

“I saw it, it was the galra!” another voice yelled, accusing them. 

Lotor clenched his jaw. He hated people who were racist towards the galra for their strong military culture. He went towards Allura, his team tailing him. She carried the young man princess style. He was unconscious, blood on his clothes and a huge silver crescent moon marked on his face. Without thinking twice, Keith took the man off of her arms and she didn’t have time to complain before Lotor started analysing her in search of injuries.

Keith was impressed by the man on his arms; he was human a few minutes ago. Maybe he could understand his feelings, being a halfblood as well. He could only hope. Even if he didn’t understand him, something about the dark skinned guy attracted him.

“Yorak.” his mom put her hand on his shoulder and nodded to the earthlings who waited there for their friend. Two tall muscled men had their arms crossed, observing Keith with threat on their eyes. “You have to give this kid back.” she whispered.

He didn’t want to. The team approached and Keith didn’t hesitated.

“Where to?” he was going to carry the man to the infirmary of the castle.

  
  
  


How shocked were he when, two days later, he found out that his people were being accused of the attack. The boy woke up; he had no memory of the last night and the earthling with glasses, Adam, said he remembered seeing the galra on the other side of the room. People who still suspected the galra were behind their planets destruction took it as a confirmation, despite the earthlings affirming it wasn’t the case at all. They listened to what they wanted to.

“Yorak,” his mother always called him by his second name “This boy could be the spy. He must have planned to get hurt during the attack and blame us.”

“But he practically died.”

“He may not have planned it well.” she was certain her hunch was right.

“And what would he win by it? They didn’t know us before Earth invasion.”

“You don’t understand how dirty is the human government, they have hidden information about extraterrestrial life. They almost caught me back on Earth; if they did, I’d be dissected alive.” both shivered.

Keith’s heart sunk. He didn’t want to believe the guy was the enemy. He had to go and check himself what the guy was up to.

He sneaked through the corridors with his Blade uniform on helping him conceal his presence. At that time of night, the castle was empty aside from the guards. In front of the man’s room — his name was Lance, if he wasn’t wrong — there were two guards, whose he put to sleep in no time; he hid them inside the room next to Lance’s.

Much to his surprise, as he was leaving, the guy was sneaking out of the bedroom as if he knew someone was going after him.

“ _ So he really is guilty, huh? _ ” he thought before he went for the guy, pinning him against the wall and pointing his knife at him.

“Tell me your true intentions!”

  
  
  


Lance don’t know what to do, having the purple skinned man in front of him, asking something he didn’t understand. The barely visible part of his face was his greyish purple eyes, thick eyebrows and bangs that reached his nose in length. He answered in the way he could.

“My intention is to go to the kitchen. I’m sorry.” he hurried to apologise.

Was it what Adam meant by menace? Because he didn’t expect it would find him immediately after he crossed the door.

“I’m not kidding! What are you intending by blaming the galra for the attack?”

“The galra?” he was aware Lotor and his companions represented the galra empire on the diplomatic meeting, and Adam teached him everything about the mapped planets Allura presented to them so he didn’t get it wrong. And he was pretty sure they didn’t attack him; there was no weapons on their hands and he was _facing_ them. The blow he received was on the back and he fell forward. 

The memories coming back at him made his head ache; his moon mark was glowing bright. He had difficult breathing. The hooded guy eased his grip and put his knife back in place. Keith had no idea of what to do, so he patted the guy on the back. He was supporting his weight with his body until the flashbacks passed.

“I didn’t say it was you guys, I swear.” he was weak but finally stood steadily, without help.

“You didn’t?” the half-galra guy blinked a couple of times.

“No.” he grunted “Now can you show me the kitchen? I’m hungry.”

Keith felt guilty for causing the guy pain and ended up leading the way to the kitchen; he was still confused while they walked. He finally took his cloak and the mouth bandana. Lance was surprised to see a gorgeous man hiding underneath all that secrecy. He had thick eyebrows, the most amazing grayish purple eyes and what he affirmed to be a birthmark on his cheek; his lopsided grin was one of the most attractive features.

“I didn’t get to ask, what’s your name?” he initiated a conversation.

“K-Keith.” he was shy around strangers, even more one coming from a foreign planet — although it was kinda his planet as well. Truth be told, he never visited Earth.

“Keith? It’s an Earth name.” Lance was so surprised his mouth formed an “o”. It made Keith chuckle.

“I’m half an earthling, so yes.”

“So aliens were among us all this time and we had no idea?” he was so excited he started grinning without noticing.

“Don’t know about that.” he shrugged his shoulders. He was enjoying the guys multiple expressions and how he talked to him without any type of misjudgment or hatred. He was right when he thought it would be nice to be friends with him, despite thinking he was too careless to trust a guy who had a knife on his neck not long before.

They chatted all the way to the kitchen; Lance decided to show him the “sandwich-monster”, a sandwich so high that it reached his chest in height. He was blessing Allura for having bought earthling food to receive them; the stuff on the fridge seemed weird to the cuban man. In exchange, Keith made him the galra juice recipe of a specifical fruit that belonged to that planet. Luckily, he could do it without breaking anything — he was a denial with cooking and homemade stuff —, but the kitchen was a mess. They ate, getting close to each other while they talked about everything, mostly Earth habits and Lance’s home country. He talked a lot and his tenor tone was pleasing. Keith didn’t notice he was flirting with the guy, who didn’t point it out either; he was guilty of doing the same.

“We have to go back.” the galra spy sighed, sad, getting up and offering his hand to Lance.

Be it anyone and he’d mock them for that; however, it was the perfect excuse to touch him without invading his personal space. He laughed and accepted the hand he was offering. After getting up, they didn’t separate their hands. Their eyes locked and Keith blushed. He then released his hand and guided the way back.

As they were arriving, Keith heard noises coming from the bedroom on which he put the guards. He grabbed Lance by the arm and rushed in.

“What was that?” he said loudly. Keith shut him with his index finger and it was Lance’s turn to be flushed.

“Don’t tell anyone I’m here.”

He laid on the floor, belly down, and crawled underneath Lance’s bed; he did it just in time, the next second the guards entered the room. Lance had time to get his movie projector and was (fake) laughing at something the main character told the other. He stared at the guys on the door.

“Do you want something, gentleman?” they shared a look, not understanding what he was saying.

“ _ Great, they don’t have the universal communicator on… _ ” if he could guess right, he’d say Keith stole them to stop them from warning Lance. The earthling pointed at his projector and smiled, showing he was fine.

A weird conversation started; Lance didn’t understand them neither was able convey he wasn't in danger. They entered the room, searching for clues that anyone was on his room and he jumped out of his bed, stepping on Keith’s hand. He let out a muffled sound and Lance winced; he started moaning as if he was in pain and fell backwards on the bed. One of the guards got near him to examine the guy; the second left to pick an earthling or Allura to help out.

“ _ Keith, you owe me one. _ ” he thought. He'd be annoyed if the situation wasn’t so funny that he wanted to laugh.

Soon, Adam and Shiro entered the room. Both had a disheveled appearance and had sleep mark on their faces. They went to Lance, both talking at the same time and checking if he was okay, dismissing the guards and continuing their evaluation.

“I’m fine, I told you!” he guaranteed; Adam pinched his cheek “Ouch!”

“Don’t you dare worry us like that again, you hear, young man?!” Shiro frowned, hand on his hips.

Despite the guilt he felt for waking them up and worrying the gentle men, he couldn’t reveal Keith underneath his bed or they would think the galra were the ones at fault for the attack after all. He still had to ask Keith what the whole knife thing was about and he didn’t want the man to get caught.

Shiro and Adam left as soon they were sure Lance was alright; they nagged about not moving around too much all the time they were in the room and even as they were leaving.

He sighed in relief when he was alone. Well, not alone, since Keith was still under his bed.

“Psst, you can come out.” he whispered; no answer.

He raised his bed sheets and found out the half-galra man sleeping soundly. He shook his head and started laughing as he dragged his body from under the bed. He wasn’t moving.

“He’s heavy.” he huffed and practically threw him on the bed; his hands, that were underneath the spy’s body, got caught and he fell on top of Keith. That was enough to wake him up; his face became red so fast he must be dizzy with all the blood on his face.

“L-Lance?”

“Help, I fell and my arms are trapped underneath you.” their faces were close and he didn’t get why he was whispering.

“Oh, okay.” he got up and held Lance before he slipped to the floor because their legs were tangled together. “Don’t be loud, they’re going to come back in!” Keith frowned.

“Alright, okay. I was trying to help, but no one thanks Lance, do they?” he sat on the bed with his arms folded and pressing play on the series.

“Thank you, Lance.” he sighed and sit on the edge of the bed. For a while, they were silent. Keith trying to understand what Lance was watching and the man getting ready to ask him about the early episode.

“Keith?”

“Huh?” he faced Lance; he could see he was distracted by the movie and the face he was doing was cute. Fun to think they were strangers to one another and yet felt so comfortable on the same space. 

“Why did you try to kill me?” he asked.

Keith got up; he was furious. Why he was insinuating he had something to do with his attack he suffered in the day he arrived?

“I mean, as I was leaving the room.” he hurried to explain himself. Keith’s anger deflated and he thought about what he meant.

“I’m working on… Secret stuff… I had to make sure you weren’t involved.”

“On what?”

“I can’t tell you. It’s secret and I could die if I compromised the mission.” he was deadly serious; a shiver run down Lance’s spine.

“Well… I already know you’re some kind of spy. Will you die?” he was worried about the guy.

“Or I should kill you to shut you up…”

“You  _ were _ going to kill me?!” he was baffled.

“No! I said that the two options were these. I don’t want either of them.” he admitted, shoulder dropping. His sincerity made Lance’s heart beat faster. “Killing you isn’t an option.”

“Because you like me?” he fluttered his eyes and smile.

“No, because it’d attract too much attention.” he jokingly told him, a lopsided grin on his face. He didn’t usually joked around like that with people his age; it was nice. Lance sticked his tongue to him and both laughed. “No, seriously, I’d never intend to kill you. I sensed you were innocent from the beginning.”

“Only because of that?” his voice cracked.

“Lance…” he rolled his eyes.

“Okay!!” he feigned an upset pout for a few minutes, then remembered what he wanted to ask  “But come on, tell me the secret stuff you’re working with! I want to help you! I don’t want to be on this bed for the next few days doing nothing  while everyone go on meetings and decide the future of the universe.” by the time he stopped speaking, he was practically bouncing on the bed. Keith shushed him, he was getting louder and louder.

Keith stared at him. He indeed was discovered by the guy; however, why he wanted to tell his secrets to him? He could be hiding something underneath his multiple layers of cute guy innocency. 

“ _ Ugh… I’m old enough to not crush on a suspect! _ ” in spite of his best judgments, he trusted the guy. Hopefully he wasn’t put the whole mission in jeopardy.

“I’ll tell you the things I can without compromising my mission.”

And he did.

  
  
  


A week later, Lance was laying on his bed with high tech outer space technology equipment on his lap, checking the surveillance cameras of the castle in one screen and searching through the day of the accident footage. He had learned a thing or two from the diplomat and his friend, Pidge, who was a hacker — that’s how she got hired by the government in first place.

Keith knocked at his door and entered with two milkshakes in hand.

“Your friend Hunk asked me to bring it to you.” he put the glass on the bedside table and started sipping his.

“When did you become so close to my friends? And how come they trusted you so fast?”

“What can I do? I’m charming.” Keith would rather razor his hair than tell him that he was the one to cradle him in his arms, weirdly earning the others sympathy. He was caught on the second night sneaking inside Lance’s room by Adam. He acted scary until Keith revealed he felt bad for Lance and wanted to see if he was doing okay; maybe his blushing helped. Since the first visit, he went there daily, mostly to watch series and movie with him than actually working.

“At least you don’t need to put the guards to sleep everyday, that’d be weird.” 

Keith choked, the liquid coming out of his nose. Both laughed.

“Okay,” the spy wiped a tear from the corner of his eye “What did you find out?”

“Well, at the present nothing is happening. Nevertheless, I observed the recordings and a few things popped out.” he separated the short video cuts he made. The first one was of the day he almost died. Watching his body falling was scary and made his head hurt. Something was out of place. “Look,” he pointed at a group of people near the Earth team. The spy leaned forward, his chest touching Lance’s back, who reacted and made him realize how close they were; he blushed “There were five people in here.” he clicked on another point of the video. “Now they’re gone.” 

“You’re a genius!!” He got up, excited about the discovery. He could kiss Lance in that moment… Not only then… But! He was able to spot the most concelead person in the full room. “We have to caught the suspect.”

“Keith, wait, it’s not that easy… I found out that more people were missing in the scene and never came back. Strangely, none of their faces was caught by the camera. The place from where the shots were supposedly made was empty, Keith. Nothing is there.”

Keith sunk back on Lance’s bed, disappointed. Both of them sighed.

“It doesn’t matter, you did a great job. Gimme this, I need to find out if there’s a list of guests…”

“I did that. It’s impossible to find out who they are because they’re not remotely close of any of the guests on the list.”

“What do you mean?” the tension on the room went up; it made Keith’s hair stand up on the back of his neck.

“It means that it’s as if they completely vanished.” it wasn’t possible, because the queen ordered to block the castle’s doors so the culprit didn’t escape.

  
  
  
  


“Tell me again what are we’re doing here?” whispered Lance as they entered the empty ballroom. “I didn’t have the chance to drink my milkshake.”

“Lance, this is serious.” hissed Keith, despite the corners of his mouth trembling. Lance considered himself a winner for making him incapable of holding back his giggles.

“Okay, let’s analyse the room.”

And that’s what they did. For half an hour they searched everywhere for any piece of evidence; Lance was focusing on the camera angles while checking them live on his hand computer. 

“Keith, here!” he pulled the back of the vest he was wearing, practically dragging him along to the place he wanted. “The blind spot is… here.” he released the fabric and Keith raised an eyebrow to him. “Sorry.” he smiled sheepishly. 

The spy approached him and looked at the camera. He was right, the corner on which they were was far from the camera’s reach. Lance was frowning; his head hurt, a sharp pain on his skull.

“Are you okay? Is something wrong?” Keith asked, noticing his pained expression.

“Yes, it’s just that… I could swear the shot came from the back of the room; then, thinking about it, I don’t have a memory of it coming from that direction.”

“Now that you mention, you were in front of your whole group; you were the first to greet queen Allura, before your leaders.”

The pain increased and he squeezed his eyes shut, breathing irregularly.

“Lance? Where does it hurt?” Keith frantically moved his hands, not knowing what to do with them or where he could touch, if he could. 

“My head.” he explained, tears gathering on his closed eyes.

Surprised, Lance felt Keith’s cold hands on his temples. He was massaging the area in circles with his thumb. The pain didn’t fade immediately, but he slowly relaxed, exhaling after holding his breath for seconds of pain.

“Better?” he pretty much whispered; he was scared of hurting him. Lance opened his eyes and smiled at the man.

“Yes, thanks.”

Keith answered him with a shy smile. His hands slided to Lance’s neck, their eyes locked together for a long time. Lance got closer and closer...

They flinched as they heard people approaching on the other side of the double doors. They had no place to hide, so they silently walked to the door, hiding beside it. They got ready to defend themselves from anyone who came for them; well, Keith was. Lance wasn’t a fighter, he was a diplomat. 

“... I couldn’t find him anywhere, his bedroom was empty. I think he’s being protected by the other earthlings”

“You failures keep increasing. I won’t take any more mistakes on your part...” their voices were getting distant; however, the familiar the second one sounded made Lance freeze and his headache was worse than before.

“ _ You will forget everything you saw. The shot came from behind you, where one of the galra stood. They’re the guilty… _ ”

Lance passed out.

  
  
  


“I think he’s coming back.” Adam announced; Lance saw so many faces when he opened his eyes that he got dizzy.

“Back off, ugly faces, you’re scaring him.” said Pidge. Shiro furrowed his eyebrows and seemed like he was about to lecture her. 

“Lance, I’m so relieved!” Keith’s face entered his field of vision, his eyes red as if he’d been crying. “You fainted.”

“Thank you.” he smiled weakly.

“F-For what?” he blinked, confused.

“I’m sure you brought me here.”

“Again.” mumbled Pidge. Hunk poked her ribs with his elbow.

The young diplomat didn’t understand what she meant; he was more worried about the guy in front of him. Keith was glad to see him awake.

What the spy couldn’t tell the guy was that as soon as Keith reached Lance’s door, holding him in his arms, he noticed his room was invaded and someone destroyed everything inside; the guards got the worse luck. The conversation they heard in the ballroom made sense to him in that moment. He had to take the guy to where their allies could protect him and tell them the news. They were desperately waiting for him to wake up in hope he’d be able to give them the answers of their questions. And Keith was worried sick about him.

“Lance, how's your head?” Allura asked.

“Fine. I remember everything!” he sat so quickly he hit his forehead on Keith’s; both groaned. It wasn’t that fine anymore. He continued “There was a man who erased my memories! I saw him and heard his command… In my mind?”

“How? We never left you alone while you were unconscious.” Adam had his hand on his chin. Something made him raise her eyes “The doctor!”

“Doctor?” Keith asked.

“There was this doctor who wanted to examine Lance. Jesus, I allowed him, this is all my fault.” Adam covered his face, ashamed.

“No, it’s not, love.” whispered Shiro, touching his arm to give him his support.

“I think your altean marks protected you of the mind control, which means it wasn’t hypnosis but magic.” Allura told him, analysing his moon shaped mark. “It was fighting all this time against the memory erasure.”

“If you remember everything, can you tell who is the doctor?”

“I saw him on the ballroom on the first day. He talked to a few different people; they kept staring at Allura’s direction, that’s why I thought they were suspicious. It wasn’t one or two people, it was about five and they weren’t from the same planet either. The shot came from the left side of the room.” he stated, confident of what he was saying. He had this weird sensation for a long time, now he understood what it was as he got back his memories. 

“Yeah, that’s what I found weird on the first time you told us the shot came from the back of the room. Takashi and I were the last ones to enter and there was no one beside us. I didn’t even noticed you were shot ‘till everyone panicked.” Adam stated.

“I remember the doctors’ face, he’s in the database.”

“Database?” he raised his eyebrows and Keith opened his eyes wide.

“ _ Oops… _ ” Lance thought.

“We were making a research, nothing harmful…” Keith tried to cover up what they were really doing.

“You two left Lance’s bedroom, don’t try to lie to us.” Allura folded her arms.

“And it saved my life!” Lance looked at everyone in there. “Let him rest.”

“No, Lance, they’re right. I’ll tell you the truth, once we locate the organization.”

Despite wanting to argue, Keith was right; they had people to catch and work to do. He gave them the information they needed and they departed. Keith had already contacted the rest of the spies and put them on the track of the people Lance pointed out as missing.

The second they left, Keith started asking Lance questions.

“Are you okay? Does your head hurt? Do you need something? Are you comfortable like this?” he was so cute that he couldn’t hide his smile “What?”

“Thank you for worrying about me.” he put Keith’s hair behind one of his ears. He avoided the diplomat eyes, feeling shy.

“How could I not?” he said in a small voice. Lance was striked by the raw emotions on his eyes as he dared to face the cuban man. The feelings in there reflected his own; it attracted him like a moth to a flame.

Who started the kiss first was a mystery. The spy was awkward in the beginning, not knowing what to do or how to act, and the diplomat took the control over their mutual exploring. Lance softly murmured as Keith let him in, as if he could truly relax for the first time since he went to space; he tilted his head, deepening the pressure on his lips. He cupped Keith’s face with his hand, caressing the place where he had his knife shaped birthmark. He leaned on his hand. Keith’s mouth tasted sweet and spice at the same time, and Lance got lost in the sensation of their tongues dancing one against the other; Keith had one hand on his lower back and the second on his neck, massaging the place like he was doing on his temples in the ballroom. The diplomat melted as time passed and Keith took the initiative; he was practically laying on his back with the spy on top of him. He darted his tongue on his mouth slowly. Lance moaned and Keith pulled away. His grayish eyes were mostly covered by the black pupils.

“Lance, did I hurt you?” he asked, breathless and worried; it was his first kiss and he wanted to do it properly.

“No.” Lance huffed “It was good, can we continue?”

Except they couldn’t. Someone entered the room and they separated. Instead of a friendly face, they got surprised by a couple of guys, most of them people who Lance slightly recognized from the ballroom. They changed something about their appearance, and he’d guess that was the reason no one could identify them before. The diplomat jumped out of the bed at the same time they charged against the two guys.

Keith wasn’t fast enough and one of the cloaked bad guys reached out to Lance, grabbing him by his throat. His face became warmer around the left eye area and he was released. The foe screamed while his hands burnt in a silver light.

“ _ Altean magic! _ ” by the time he raised his head, the henchmen were down. It ended as soon as it started. Keith faced him, fangs showing, and growled.

Lance got closer; he wasn’t scared of the guy who kissed him not longer ago, although he he to confess it was a whole different side of him he didn’t knew or realised he had. He  _ was _ a spy after all, he had to protect himself somehow. He touched Keith’s face gently like when they were kissing, and the awareness on his eyes diminish until it faded completely. Keith hugged him tight, hiding his face on Lance’s neck. It was slightly difficult to do; they had the same height.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” 

“It’s okay, you were amazing. Did you see what my face did?”

“Yes, I did. Never seen that sort of thing happening before though.”

“I’m special.” he said, full of himself.

The door opened again and someone cleared their throat. Still hugging, they turned to see a older woman who were a female copy Keith, birthmark and all, standing at the door.

“I see you two are unharmed.” she was embarrassed.

“Mom, those were all of them?” Keith surprehended Lance with that piece of information. He had to properly introduce himself later.

“No, we caught their leader; the blades found out the culprits. They were already on their way here and here we are.” she shrugged her shoulders.

“How come we didn’t hear about their whereabouts until now?”

“We had a spy on our team… Narti. They manipulated the information we received; she was the one who killed Zarkon before Lotor could interrogate him.” Keith processed the information. Something big was behind all of this and they finally had the key to end it.

“Take us to the leader.”

  
  
  
  
  


The olkari man was tightly tied in a chair, looking skeptical about the attempts to take the truth out of him. Everyone, earthling, altean and galra, was around him or the multiple prisoners. Some of the culprits started talking, while he remained calm and collected.

“What was your purpose in invading all those planets, monster? What my father did for you druids?” asked Lotor, furious. He was frustrated; his father was part of the organization called “druids”, that he already knew; in spite of that, he never got to find out what lead him to do it in first place. He was shaken after his mother’s death and changed to the point his own son couldn’t recognize him. The climax of the change was the was he started against Altea, ending up reaping Alfor’s, his best friend, life.

“Zarkon was a valuable ally, a valuable druid. He gave his life for the cause.” that was the only thing he pronounced.

“And what is the cause?!” Lance joined them.

“You!” he hissed, and Keith instantly put himself in front of the diplomat “If you didn’t try to save princess Allura, nothing would’ve happened. I let you live in that situation because it’d be impossible to kill you when you were constantly under the others’ watch and yet you could reveal us and break the spell I cast on you.” he didn’t altered his calm self beside the flaring anger at the sight of Lance. Allura told him on the first night after he woke up that he could develop magical skills or block spells; maybe that’s what stopped him from blaming the galra or being affected completely by the erasure spell.

“Then I’m glad I could stop you.” he crossed his arms.

“Your team is nothing but a nuisance. Earthlings agreed to the cause a while ago and yet they sent you here?”

“They what?!” The diplomatic team said in unison.

“They agreed to join us; they were going to help us clean the dirty place this universe has become.”

“You were aware of anything about this?” Shiro asked to Adam, who shook his head.

“The secret service didn’t inform me about it.”

“Secret service?” Hunk raised his eyebrows. The other had a comically flabbergasted expression.

“Long story short, we’re spies.”

“Oh, us too!” Keith told them; his mom gave him a killer stare, to which he defies with one of his own.

“Good, everybody are spies.” Allura dryly cut their discussion and turns to the olkari psycho “What do you mean by “clean”?”

“The universe balance is disturbed by people like them” he nodded at the earthlings “and you father, who refused to be a part of this great organization. Can’t you see? We’re cleaning those places who alter the world’s ballance and putting order to the chaos.”

“You’re not gods!” Allura angrily yelled. His mentioning her father made her lose her cool “You don’t have the right!”

“Why not? Power is in our hands to be used to rule over the chaos that surround us. You’re powerful, although your mind is weak. As your father’s.”

Lotor held her hand and she mouthed a ‘thank you’.

“How decimating planets is putting the universe in balance?” Adam was disgusted as he forced himself to pronounce the words.

“We gave the gentle offer of them surrendering to our will and working for us to become the greatest intergalactic empire ever seen.”

“Slavery is your great weapon?” Shiro raised an eyebrow. 

“You’re sick…” Krolia scowled at the sight of his face.

“On the other hand, I have to thank you.” Allura was being ironic; a victorious grin showed up “Without your “druids”, we wouldn’t have gathered here to finally end up your planet “cleaning”.”

“You won’t stop me!” the members of the Blade started carrying him out of the room. “I have allies everywhere, this isn’t the end.”

“Typical villain chat.” Hunk told Lance, who smiled.

“Even if he does have supporters, discovering the main member here certainly gave us the key to end up this forever.” Lotor said, casually releasing Allura’s hand. “I’m happy we gathered here with the same purpose: protect our people and all the citizens of every galaxy. Tonight we rest knowing the universe is a safer place to live on. We should use this as an opportunity to create an everlasting alliance that shall protect everyone equally.”

Everyone in the room clapped and cheered once he ended up his speech. Lance smiled, relieved and also sad, at Keith.

It ended, for good and for bad.

  
  
  


Later that night, Keith accompanied Lance to his new room; the previous one was torn apart beyond fix. They walked in silence, a comfortable but expectant one. The diplomat had so much to say and yet the words were stuck on his throat. He bit his lips.

They stopped in front of the door and Keith turned to face him.

“Lance—”

“Keith—” they spoke at the same time 

“You first…” Keith gestured for him to continue, and one stared at the other, silent again.

Lance tried to identify any sign of discomfort on his face or on his gestures. They didn’t reveal anything. His eyes told a different story; they were intense, indescifrable, nonetheless warm. Those twin flames burnt Lance on his heart. He passed a hand through his dark brown hair, gathering the strength to say what he needed, what he wanted.

“Now that it’s over, you kind of don’t have any more reasons to be around, right?” he avoided Keith’s eyes.

“Do I need a reason to be close to you?” his tone was low, raspy. Lance gave him a side glance. “‘Cause I don’t need this to want to be with you.”

Lance’s heart skipped a beat.

“Do you mean what I think you do?” the diplomat finally turned his gaze to the spy, a hesitant smile fighting its way on his lips.

“I mean, if you want to.” he shrugged his shoulders, blushing profusely. “To g-go out with me...” he almost choked with his own saliva.

“I want it!” Lance practically jumped the man who had no further option than hold him. The embrace turned into a affectionate hug and then an attempt of kissing. They were avid for that to the point their nose bumped and so did their teeth. Both stepped back, holding their face on the place it hurt, groaning.

“Let’s try again.” Keith’s voice was muffled by his hand. “Can I?” he released his nose and wrapped his arms around Lance’s neck, hooking him to get closer; he answered by holding each side of his waist.

This time, it was perfect. The spy took his time exploring his soft lips, nibbling the lower lip until Lance release the air he’d been holding in without noticing. He took the opportunity and delved inside the diplomat’s open mouth, exploring the roof and the back of the teeth, slowly swirling his tongue against Lance’s, who repeated his movements eagerly. Lance sucked the tip of his tongue and pulled away, spreading light pecks on his cheeks, eyebrows, nose and on the mouth. They breathed heavily and smiled like fools.

He realised he didn’t hate his altean marks that much anymore. They were given to him with the purpose to save his life. And being alive was what brought him to Keith and in the future would take the diplomat back to the family he is so proud of. His family would be surprised to know he was dating someone he liked so much; and that someone is a half-human on top of that. And that Lance himself seems like an extraterrestrial being… He had so much to tell.

And he’d have Keith by his side on every step.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter took so much effort on my part that sincerely, I think I'm never gonna be able to do something as big as this again haha  
> I really hope you enjoy! If you did, I'd enjoy your feedback (if you don't want that's okay too). Also, I proofread this but it could have some small errors here and there, hope you didn't mind (I'd appreciate if you warned me too).  
> Anyway, see you soon!!  
> ~Lee


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